Somewhere else, at any rate. Not where Lyle, a rather unhealthy, skinny, pale-looking senior in his high school and Tiffany are walking home from school, one of them reading a magazine. One ad in particular pops up...

"Do you remember Reyta? Well, it's been re-released, and from the nice folks at Roundhouse! It's better than ever, and all the old bugs have been taken care of. Plus, if you have an old system, you can use it to connect to Y'tuin and get your old character back!" along with more, not as important information. To him, anyway.

This ad caused him to immediately speak up and say, "Hey...look at this." and hand the advertisement to his female companion.

"Hn," said the ever-eloquent Tiffany, scanning the ad. It only takes a few minutes before she grins, looking up at him.

"Sounds good. Real good, y'know? The game was fun, even though we didn't get too far. We could revive our old characters too." An impish look arose in her eyes, and she poked his chest lightly. "And I bet you'll like having to wear a bra again, won't you?"

Lyle grunted a bit, sighing as he replied, "Terra? Ergh...I wonder if they'll let me do a sexchange..."

He continued to flip through the book, thinking a bit about it. After a short silence he continued on to say, "I wonder if they did solve all the bugs...I remember the trouble from last time, don't you? Then the company decided to take it seriously and shut everyone out, and then shut it down." He finishes the last a bit paranoidly, all the while remembering how close they -all- came to getting hurt. For real.

Tiffi sighed, patting Lyle's shoulder slightly. She remembers as well, though the memories... well. While bad, she still had an unshakable faith that this time, things would be better. Why else would the game be re-opened, after all?

"After all the fluff that happened? They've probably tested and retested it a million times, just to make sure nothing sticks. And maybe you could get the character changed."

Lyle looked at her...and smiled a bit. "Yeah, I'm sure you're right. They knew the scare from the last time they tried to do it, along with what I'm sure are several lawsuits. Want to try and log in? I've still got my set-up if you've got yours..."

"Heck, I've still got my set-up even if you don't have yours!" she retorted, ruffling his hair. "No homework today either, so I can just go on when we get home."

Lyle nodded, a mad little grin decorating his face. "Alright then...say, it says in the magazine that the newbie area is filled with bugs of all sorts...including fifty varieties of Ladybugs. See you there!"

With that, Lyle began running for the relative safety of home and Y'tuin.

Tiffi froze for a moment, body rigid with terror, before her delayed outburst breaks free and she pounces after him, screaming, "LY~YLE!"

Lyle laughed, running with the speed only one with a lifetime of practice evading Tiffi could manage, just barely keeping out of her grip. "You'll need me to protect you from those ladybugs! See you there!"

As their route home passes by her house first, Tiffi stops by the front gate, panting and glaring as Lyle runs from sight.

"Ooooh! I'm going to GET YOU!" she threatens, shaking a fist.

Lyle doesn't even stop to offer a reply taunt, instead simply running directly home and setting up his machine ASAP. He vaguely wonders what kind of new stuff they'll have, and if they can really retain all their old stuff...and what sort of trouble that would cause if some people did.

Once his machine -is- up, he finds, much to his chagrin, that Terra cannot, in fact, be sex-changed. Only her look changed, which he decides does not need to happen. Armor is good enough for him.

Safe in her home, Tiffi stews in front of her machine. She does NOT relish the thought of facing hordes of ladybugs. But still....

Still, at least she can change Tiffi's look. Again, she's a Deysetsu Mage, but trades in the leather bikini for much more sensible travelling gear, equally stylish but with more coverage.

Lyle waits patiently for Terra to load, deciding to not modify a thing, and peeks through the old stuff that he got to keep...back to level 1, which doesn't bother him, but with an addition of quite a bit of gold and some of his old equipment. He then decides to go into the game, and he lands into the 'Oldbie OOC room' where a large sign proudly declares, "Where you can talk about the old game proudly, and meet with old friends!" Tiffi will undoubtedly land there, so Lyle simply waits, retaining his old Knight class.

It's but a few moments before Tiffi to join him, stretching happily, and smug in the knowledge that if she stretches, bits of her anatomy aren't likely to be exposed.

Terra looks over at her, faking a little frown. "Aw...you were so much -cuter- back in the old days...anyway, see if you kept all of your stuff. Some of it will undoubtedly be handy."

She nods, kicking Terra/Lyle's shin slightly. Since her friend's wearing armour, her toe is stubbed of course, but at least she has a sense of victory. "Yeah, think I do," she replies, after a brief checking.

Lyle nods again, looking for the way out of the black little room...and finally sees one. It's just a small door that has a tiny sign pointing towards it. "This way to Y'tuin" it says in its letters of red pride, standing tall for most to see! "Well...let's try this thing again. And pray we don't run into conspiracies, Summoners, or megalomaniacal Ladybugs again."

Terra chuckles, leading the way out the door...and into a broad plain that seems to lead to a grandoise town, spires sticking out over walls like pins from a bit of sewing, large balls of gold adorning some of them. The buildings themselves are a pure white, not a speck of dust on them, and a humongous castle rests in the middle, a symbol of medeival architecture. Lyle gives a low whistle of appreciation. "Must be...Kinsel. Newbie town, low monster level. And not a ladybug in sight, Tiff."

"Oh good..." Tiffi lets out an enormous exhalation of relief, then immediately looks guilty right after. "I mean, ladybugs... I can deal with 'em. Really. But I'd rather not."

Lyle chuckles, shaking his head. "Well...maybe we should see if there's anyone in town. Maybe we can find some others who can help us out with the new stuff." With that, he offered an arm to Tiffi, being the ultimate lady/gentleman.

Tiffi, being the ultimate lady, accepts the arm!

And they both head off into the city, nary a bug of any sort following them...it seems that there's some sort of peace period for players right now.
--------------------------
While all of this was going on, another person had already entered Y'tuin. He seems a very...natural person, dressed in a cloak of multi-colored leaves and wearing clothes that seem to be made of snowy white wool, seeming very warm and very pure. His face is pinched, obviously that of a modified human, looking more elven than human. Silly man. But he paced along the all-but empty streets of the first city quite happily, giving a friendly hello to the random NPC he passes. He'd enjoy meeting people all over again...maybe this time, there really would be no problems. He begins to whistle a little mysterious tune, and decides to transmit it to the rest of the world to hear, since it -was- rather nice, and somewhat uplifting. And well within his power to do so, being one of the few GMs that had signed up for the early period, before things got busy. Lyle and Terra were the first to hear it, but there would undoubtedly be others in the world as well...

Cassandra Nebinport finished assigning homework to her class (much to their disgust) and left the class. She then went to her office, checked her e-mail and saw a message that made her smile, then pull the headset out of her drawer.

------

The first thing she did when she logged on as Cerr was to check her equipment. Finding it to her satisfaction, she smiled and entered the Oldbie OOC room, but found it empty. Hmm. No one has signed back on yet? Odd. She then left to enter the town, walking its streets to see what was familiar and what was totally new.

Amongst any group, there is always a first, an original. Same goes for the people who e-mailed. Though many e-mailed afterwards, in many different ways, Marcus e-mailed the best way. Marcus e-mailed first.

And it was evident. A door opening, and a plopping of a heavy bag onto a bare wooden floor. And then a large box being pulled into the apartment, graciously left there at the top of the stairs and not at ground level. Who was dragging it? A 5'7" tall, slightly thin man, with short blonde hair. Nevermind the black jacket.

After god knows how long of unpacking and assembling the module, and reading the book, he got himself situated...

...and inside the game, a new person appeared. A Wingra of decent height, clad in a somewhat revealing outfit that was only in black and white. Makai stepped forward toward Kinsel. The newbie town, obviously...

He hadn't e-mailed first, but he did e-mail, and he got the second prize set. Sam looked over the rather basic set of gear knowing what the deluxe system had, and decided if the game was good enough he might start putting money back to buy the full set. Not that a college student makes a lot of money, but his scholarship took care of most of his costs (even books!) so he didn't have as much to worry about as other students.

He had everything set up in his room. He wasn't sure what the details were, but his roomate had transferred out leaving him to whole room to himself. Highly unusual for a Freshman...

But that's not important. He wizzed through character creation, knowing exactly what he wanted and learning to manipulate the system quickly. It was pretty intuitive, to the programmers' credit.

A few minutes later, Raze entered the game and walked towards a town for the first time...

Ethra flew by, and nearly through the vendors, in and out doors. This was a game! He could afford to be a bit reckless.
Plus the feel of going fast was pretty exilarating. Reckless is as reckless does however, and an increase in speed means less control with position. So when someone happened to be in a place he couldn't avoid moving into...

"WoooOH!" He skidded to a halt, probably by colliding into the person.

(and via random rolling it is... the first character name mentioned! Lyle!)

Deep in the dark recesses of the basement of no return lies a scheming, plotting creature of virtual mastery and unlimited contempt for everything else.

This creature excitedly keys its equipment on and begins the short process for porting the terror and misery at its apparent electronic superiority into a newly-refurbished world...

It also grumbles slightly that it would have accomplished this sooner had it not needed to complete its nightly intercourse with the dreaded homework from beyond.

At any rate, it is not long before a small, dark, broody man appears in the "Oldbies OOC" room, completely shorn of his grand equipment and left with only a few remains of his once great wealth in another, less graphically perfect realm.

Oh well. Empires need only be rebuilt.

And so the character eyes his surroundings, decides that there is no one he really wants to talk to, and heads straight for Y'tuin, taking stock of his equipment as well as his resources...

"Pitiful," sounds the brooding creature, synthetic voice filled with contempt for something. "Merely left with a Blade of Carnage which I don't even have the stats to use, a Sweeper which really isn't my style, some Blue Dragon Robes, and a paltry amount of gold. Oh well, perhaps someone wants a Sweeper and I can trade it for some earrings."

And thus, having taken an extremely public inventory of his situation, Alexander Christ steps into Y'tuin, first looking for a weapons shop so he can deal with his mostly-unarmed situation. Though, considering the way he moves about, he seems to be as lost in Kinsel as anyone else. Anyone watching will see him chat up every NPC he finds. After a bit he puts on his Sweeper Scythe to advertise the fact that he has one.

Terra lets out a small yell, going down in a pile of blue armor and green hair under Ethra, grumbling as she crawls out from under the hapless Wingra. "Watch where you're going, please..." he manages to mutter after a bit.
Meanwhile, Sorune was getting just a touch bored. He felt the need to stir things up for the newbies of the game, and he knew just how to do it. His whistling song stopped, and was replaced with a short, brief message.

<span style="font-size:large;">All newbies who wish for a special, custom-made item, please go to the bar in Kinsel within the next hour!</span>

Alexander Christ is of course suddenly on his way to the bar... he might not be a newbie, but he's level 1, he can go in naked, and some reasonably good weapons he has the stats to use would definitely be a plus. And so, to the bar in Kinsel he goes, of course being indignant the whole way, and upon arrival he tries to quietly figure out where he needs to go for the custom item. Who knows? Maybe he'll actually get something.

Alexander was undoubtedly the first to enter the bar, and he'd see that it was anything but sparse. There were several NPCs, some of them chatting loudly over the crops, some of them having quiet drinks, and two near the fireplace enjoying a game of checkers. And the obligatory NPC barkeeper, wiping at some imaginary spot in a glass.

And then there was Sorune, leaning back and enjoying some sort of hot drink...

After askin for directions from a friendly NPC, of course. The conversation lasts about thirty seconds, most of the time bein spent with Raze convincing the NPC that he didn't have the money to buy anything.

"Note to self: Store NPCs are more persistant than in other games you've played."

After following said direction, he notices finds himself before the bar, as expected. Relieved he didn't get lost and therefore didn't have to ask for directions again, he steps in and almost ducks in to the door that probably wasn't designed with giants in mind, nearly hitting another who likely came to the bar for this event. He stops himself before he tramples the smaller character, however.

Ethra rolls off of whoever it was he plowed into. In one solid motion he gets of gets up quite quickly, and begins to hop, jog, and stretch in place. He jumps into the air catching a bit of wind under his flapping wings, nonethless falling down in a bowing position.

"Eth, nice to meet ya! Again, sorry about that... any idea where a polearm merchant is around here?"

Ethra sighs, "But that's no fun. I mean they'll just tell you where it is because they innately know because they're programmed." Appearently he couldn't believe that AI had advanced far enough to provide an actual conversation that was stimulating, or maybe he jsut prefered to talk to people.

Alexander Christ stands there... waiting. It's in his player's nature to wait for any offers by GMs to be followed up before he begins to ask for things; Game Masters are testy creatures, and bothering them tends to yield bad results.

"Oh, right! Smashy smashy!" Tiffi chirps, visibly brightening. Her tail squirms madly as she contemplates the idea of a staff specifically designed for smashing ladybugs.

If she were any happier, it would probably be illegal.

"Sounds good, and I think I remember where it is. At least the area. And yeah, don't see why they'd only give one item to a party of people... then you couldn't divide it or anything. Unless it was a funky bracelet or something. The kind that fits together. Though that still wouldn't be terribly interesting. C'mon, let's go look for it!"

Heedless of any discomfort on Terra's part, she grabs her friend's arm, dashing off.

Terra erked as she was dragged off at high speed, giving a sort of shrug to Eth as she was left in the dirt...she couldn't stop Tiff when she was in -this- sort of mood, oh no.
Sorune would look over to the PC after he waited for a bit, eventually saying, "Patient, are we? Good, I like that in an adventurer...come, sit down for a spell. Let's chat."

It is clear that Tiffi does know where she's going- or at least thinks she is. She does manage to head purposefully in one direction, with only a few accidental turns as she peers down dead-end alleys. Her strategy appears to be based on the fact that going at full speed means she covers more ground, whether or not it's the right ground.

Her methods do work however, as she soon ends up within sight of the inn. Once that's accomplished, she goes into a full-out sprint, fuelled by sugar and a phobia of ladybugs.

"Patient, are we? Good, I like that in an adventurer...come, sit down for a spell. Let's chat."

Raze smirks at this and looks over to the GM. He speaks as he walks toward a seat near him, a voice filter he programmed into his headset making his voice sound deeper than the player's really was. Still, even with the filter, the sarcasm in his tone was obvious.

"I'm playing a slow race with a tank class. Patience is a virtue I can't afford to be without."

He pulled up a chair and sat, facing the GM while positioning himself awkwardly, dissapointed that he didn't see any chairs or stools that were large enough for him.

Sorune simply clapped his hands, one of the chairs widening to accomodate his larger companion. Definitely a GM. "Fair enough, fair enough...I take it you -are- here about the quest I shouted throughout the heavens? You're the first to show up, it seems. Though there's still a good twenty minutes, if you'd like a headstart on the rest, I could give you the information now...or you could team up with them when they get here, and I'll only waste my breath once. Entirely up to you, dear sir."
Terra was taking advantage of being dragged to admire some of the delicate work they'd done on the sky, on the buildings, and even on Tiff herself...they were even better than last time. But of course, there -was- the fact that neither of them knew where to go. "Want to stop and ask directions?" He said calmly, giving a little voice of reason to her madness.

Sorune grins a bit, waving an arm to allow another chair to be put under the newcomer, trying his best to make them feel at home. "Welcome, welcome...ah, but how rude of me. I'm Sorune...resident God of Natural Chaos, at your service. And I'd get into a long shpiel about how I'm not any sort of evil God, or even a Good God, but I'm sure you don't want to hear about it right now."

Sor didn't seem to notice any such problems...and even if he did, he ignored them. Probably another damnable GM advantage. "Oh, it is something of a competition...teams are encouraged, but by no means required. I simply want you two to go to a certain dungeon with a certain keyword, and bring back the treasure you find inside. The dungeon is New Hope Arises. You two -do- know where the log-in platform is, yes? I'll gladly tell you where it is if you don't already know." He smiled again, a definite smirk, wondering how they'd pull it off if they -did- get through the dungeon...
Terra, in the meantime, had managed to stop Tiffi long enough to get directions, and was being pulled off by her once again! In the right direction, this time, instead of wandering aimlessly!

Deciding to test controls out for a while, Makai's player took a while practicing things that'd be likely here. Like evasive maneuvers. And attacking. And ways of getting up close to attack. And ways to get the hell out of there.

Needless to say, he took a while. But upon hearing the call for the "custom item"...he quickly headed into the bar.

"Show me the way to the aspirin!" Terra cried last, though nowhere near a sloudly as the others. In fact, it was more of a mutter. And off the wonder-trio went to the bar...
"Yes, New Hope Arises. The Log-in platform is directly south of here, and west when you find the red weapon shop." Sorune said matter-of-factly, almost boredly. "You'll know the item when you see it. Now run along...don't want anyone else catching up, do you?"

Of course, that was Tiffi's cue to kick the door open. It hardly broke her speed as she continued running into the bar. Once inside, she began slowing down, but not enough; she ended up crashing into a wall. Fortunately, her slower speed meant it didn't hurt too much.

Sorune simply looked at the second group, including poor Terra...who was currently rubbing his head. That had been the first thing into the wall, after all. "I...see. Well, this should be amusing...perhaps you all could race against these ladies? See who can get through the dungeon first? Yes, a capitol idea...and the first to return from it will be given their gifts. Young ladies, you will want to hurry to the platform-directly south from here, and turn west at the red building-and give the keywords New Hope Arises at the log-in platform."

Terra heard about every other word of this as her system tried to give her something akin to being rammed into a wall. Her ears were ringing.

Raze stares a few moments at the odd display, blinks once, then sighs.

"Geez... Guess I better get goin'. At that rate the monsters might not be able to catch her."

As he headed for the door, he sent a wave and a grin over his shoulder before duckin out of the door. Once out, he began... running? Perhaps walking quickly would be a better term.

"There better be some demons or monsters of some sort to hold the others up... No way I can win otherwise.

He made it to the portal in relatively good time, considering and dismissing the possibility of visiting the weapon shop as he passed it. As quickly as he could manage, he entered the keywords "New Hope Arises" and stepped in to the portal.

(OOC: To show I'm not dead... Also, inaccuracies are the result of my faulty memory. Sorry, Sage.)

Meanwhile, Cerr had started toward the tavern but was stopped by an old man, a farmer by the looks of him. He was mumbling something about how people always hustled when the gods called, but never did anything for him, oh no. She stopped, like a dutiful little adventurer, and asked, "What is it you need help with?"

He replied, "There are skeletons in my barn, and I was wondering if you could help me get rid of them. I used to be a fair polearm back in the day, and I would be able to help you."

Almost automatically, she replied, "Sure. Where is your barn?" The farmer replied, "This way." and led her toward it.

(OOC: Sage, could you get the rest? I have to go all too soon, and my memory gets worse.)

"Wait up, buddy!" cries the bishounen at Raze. Alex Christ is getting his rear in gear and is trying to keep pace with his erstwhile partner... or at least he's under the impression that they're partners. The awkwardness in his movement is lessening, and his equipment is impressive, if slightly off-kilter for his avatar's size and movement speed.

Despite everything that seems wrong with him, he's still moving rather quickly if not with ease.